Getting Ready for a trip, random questions ...

[Ray Davis]

SO, I'm getting ready for the first real trip since purchasing my coach in December. It's going cross country, from CA to NY and back this summer, and in preparing for the trip, several niggling questions have come up. I'm not sure if they should normally be split into separate threads, but many of them are very simple, so hopefully this is OK.

1. How often should I change oil? This is a '92 8V92 engine.

2. Other than checking fluids regularly, are there any others which should be changed on a regular interval, like oil? Especially anything which needs to be changed/serviced during a 6000 mile trip?

3. How to know which roads you can't drive on in a bus? For example, I've been told that you can't go on the Palisades Parkway in NJ. I purchased a motorcarries atlas which seems to confirm that for commerical trucks, but I don't have any reference as to what privately owned coaches can or can't do.

4. Speaking of roads, coming from CA we have very few toll roads, but I think I'm going to hit a lot of them on the way. It that really going to get pricey in a bus, or should I try to avoid? Is it a pain getting through a toll booth in a bus?

5. How to know about mountain or hill climbs? A simple example. I'm going to Salt Lake City next week. I just happened to see a reference that it was located at 6500 feet! Obviously there is some large uphill road from CA to get to 6500 feet. Not that this is all that high, but I'd like to be ready in advance if I'm going up or down steep grades enroute.

6. I had brakes checked and adjusted at Prevost. How often should that be done?

7. Do all of the Prevost facilities allow an overnight stay whilie traveling? I know the Mira Loma facility in CA allows it.

8. Has any of you travelled down Route 66? Any areas in specific which are not bus safe?


Well, that's the questions off the top of my head. Thanks in advance. I've never driven cross country before, and am looking forward to it. I've driven all over the west coast, from Canada to Mexico, but really never much east of AZ, so it's kinda new to me.

Ray

[Jon Wehrenberg]

These are personal opinions so take them with a grain of salt.

With everything serviced and topped off you should be able to do the whole trip with no additional service, including lube, brake adjustment, oil change or anything else. If your round trip is 6000 or even 7000 miles you will be ready for service when you get back, but don't worry about it along the way.

I change my oil and lube the coach every 5000 miles. I do so because I consider the short infrequent trips of 1000 to 1500 miles to be severe duty service, but a long run like you propose is exactly what these buses were designed to do.

If the roads say no commercial traffic be afraid. Very afraid. You may run into height limits or weight limits. We ran into height clearance problems on a road that tracked Lake Ontario in NY state.

The truckers book is a good resource and so is your CB if in doubt. Don't rely on car drivers for advice. Ask truckers.

You can avoid toll roads, but as you go across states like OK, IN, OH, NY, etc some of the roads going in your direction are toll roads. Ask for the fee schedule and before you pull away from the ticket plaza make sure your ticket is for a non-commerical and they have your weight or axles correct. It is easier to deal with their error at that point than when you get to the end to pay the toll. You will learn if you are very careful and can adjust the angle slightly when you approach the ticket booth the ticket giver will not see the towed car. Once you get the ticket and start pulling away, don't stop if they start screaming. The money you cheat them out of will compensate for the money they screw you out if because they charged you commercial rates.

You will easily fit through toll booths, but if you are worried, stay far right and go through the one usually there for wide or oversized loads.

There are no Prevost facilities between CA and NY except for Nashville. Don't know if they will accomodate you. Never paid attention. Give them a call.

There are mountains and hills all over. If your coach has never shown a tendency to go past 195 degrees under any circumstances you should be OK. If you have to go up a hill just hold your foot to the floor. Let the transmission and engine work together. If your temps start to go north of 200 then you have to drop a gear and accept the reduced speed. If you are forced to do that you also should shut off bus air if you have it.

If the temps do rise that is nature's way of telling you a radiator flush or recore may be in your future.

If your brakes are self adjusting you should not have to deal with them other than to verify they are working (the adjusters). If they are not the self adjusting type you may want to adjust them at every oil change or lube job. It is no big deal. Come to the POG rally and I will show you how.

Two final bits of advice. Check your fluids daily. Look under the coach for leaks, and whenever possible check your wheels or tires for evidence of a hub seal leak. You will see a spider web evidence of oil leakage from the hub.

The final advice is check the tire pressures often, when cold. Those tires will last for a hundred thousand miles or more, but run them with low pressure and they won't get you across town before they blow.

Have a great trip and if you need help let the folks on this and the other site know.

[Ray Davis]

Thanks Jon, that's helpful. So, do I understand correctly that with the toll roads, you get a ticket when you get on, and then pay when you leave? We've only recently got toll roads out here, and I just use a transponder. We don't have a concept of tickets.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

They have the same thing, called EZ Pass I think. I don't know how it works because I just paid the toll at the end. Florida on some of their toll roads charges you for segments so you end up stopping every few miles to pay your money.

[dalej]

There is a nice Prevost service center in the Dallas/Ft.Worth area also, at least there was a couple of years ago.

[MangoMike]

Ray,

I used a EZ pass last winter during a trip and when the bill came in it had these big charges. I guess their system thought I was a commercial bus (Imagine that) so in the future I take the time to stop and pay the toll manually - while pointing to the "Private Coach" sign on the side.

After reading Jon's post, about creatively positioning the toad, I can see why the Tolls are so high.

Another essential for traveling, if you're not already equipped, is a Verizon aircard so you can keep us posted nightly on your travels.

Have fun,
Mike

[pognumber26]

Some things to consider:
-Travel East on one set of roads and west on another set
-There is a COMPLETE(east and west) set of mountain pass guides available
-I have stayed in several Prevost facilities...don't forget that there is a GREAT Prevost service center in NJ
-Be prepared to be frustrated by the MANY different toll variations in the tri-state area...There is no rhyme or reason to how they charge a Prevost motorhome
-You can drive the ENTIRE length of the Garden State Parkway
-Your truckers atlas is the BIBLE for your trip...As Jon suggests, follow ALL the info RELIGIOUSLY!!! There is a section in the begining that lists EVERY states limitations on a road by road basis... Follow this info!!!
-HAVE FUNNNNNNNNNNNN

[Jerry Winchester]

Ray,

I am camped out on Route 66 in Williams, AZ today and leaving for Monument Valley tomorrow. We have driven mostly on Interstate highways this trip with a few exceptions and there are only a few good places to drive down 66 between here in Oklahoma and since I-40 to OKC is basically 66, you can take a few divesions along the way and stay close to 40/44.

I would not change a route to keep from paying a toll. They put toll roads there for a reason and that is usually that they are more convenient than the other roads. At 6mpg and $3.00 per gallon, the toll is cheap compared to the added miles. I have an EZ Tag, but it only works in Texas and Oklahoma.

Jon is right about checking the fluids. And with an 8V, you will have to put oil in it several times on a long trip like that. It's a physics problem, so don't ask. If you have oil in the handy reservoir tank on the coach, then that will be the answer. Mine is not clean yet, so I had to add oil thru the valve cover. Be careful when you do this and if you dump oil on the exhaust manifold, wipe it up.

I will say that the best thing I have done for this trip was some good planning. Mostly to get all the parking places lined out and the reservations in place so my milk and my Cherrios would come out about equal.

And I have pulled some serious grades on this trip as well as gone down a bunch. Good temperature management and the Jake brake will help, but several times I downshifted at the top of the hill to 3rd and let the Jake brake ease me down about 45 or 50 with only a gentle tap of the brakes every so often.

We are having a great trip, but we have had a few niggling things to deal with, but have taken it all in stide. Crap, I even had to go get a caulk gun and some Liquid Nails to glue a large mirror back in place. Seems the genious at Royale who glued it up didn't remove the protective backing from the mirror and between the heat and the rough roads, the thing came loose. Go figure, but I have fixed about half a dozen things on this trip, but nothing insurmountable.

[Just Plain Jeff]

Taking a nice long leisure trip in a new coach is great fun. You get to use a Prevost for the purpose it was intended!

Here are my additions to the commentary:

1. If you have a radar detector, turn it OFF in Virginia.

2. With an 8V92, I found that the general rule of thumb is that they use about 1 quart of oil/1000 miles of travel. Bring several jugs of straight grade oil with you. We didn't on our first trip and wound up having to buy an entire case at a lubricant dealer (he wanted to sell us a drum of it). Some may use more or less, but you will get to know your engine's fingerprint on a nice long trip.

3. Unless you have some kind of a hose leak, you shouldn't use much or any coolant. If you do, then there are some other issues to address.

4. There are those who will argue this point, but if you find yourself starting up in 30F or less ambient temp, you may find a bit of coolant has leaked from hose connections. These are cold temp leaks. The expansion/contraction rate of the large metal coolant piping is greater than the hose/clamps. This is a good time to tighten them before starting up the engine. Keep an eye on your hoses as you start up and shut down.

5. Look under the engine compartment at where you have parked: If something is leaking, it will happen at night when you are sleeping and it is a good way of seeing traces of goobers that may not be apparent upon visual inspection. All clean? Good to go.

6. Watch the way the truckers drive. Often times you will find that they will accelerate before the grades which are familiar to them to gain speed for the incline. But remember, they can corner better than a bus, so keep your speed down until you are comfortable with the handling of your bus.

7. Think of driving your bus as if you have 48 menopausal French Canadian women onboard. Smooth and comfortable. That's how Prevost designed the bus in the first place. Drive as if any of the passengers will beat on you if you make sudden stops or turns. Take it slow and turn wide.

8. In my experience, every bus has uniquely different braking characteristics. Some buses, and I cannot tell you why, stop better than others. Get used to slowing down smoothly with plenty of stopping distance ahead. I was, ah, well, a bit too aggressive with our first bus a long time ago and had a couple of white knuckle stops. In town, go down a couple of gears and keep your RPMs up so you can really control the motion of the bus.

9. Driving at night is much different than driving in the daylight. You lose a lot of side vision and it is possible to bump into curbs or other unfriendly objects midships. I have not done this personally, but have heard that others do. It is a far better thing to drive conservatively and have fun than to push the envelope and be sorry later. If you do drive at night and you are pulling into a tight space, use your docking lights and go slow. Don't be afraid that you are looking like a dork, it is for your safety and for others.

10. Have realistic goals about how far you are going to drive each day. Build up your confidence as a bus driver first. If you find some place that's a cool place to hang out, don't worry about how far you drove on a given day. Park the bus and enjoy the countryside if you have the time to do so. That's what we call a 'pleasure trip.' There are people who are 'Tube People,' who begin at Point A and drive until they drop at Point B. The commercial truckers can only drive 10 hours per day by law, and that's a good standard to measure your own performance. Unless you are an experienced long hauler, after about 10 hours, it's time to at least take a good break.

11. Some parts of the country are much more conducive to long mileage. Out west on the wide open prairie, you can put on a bunch of miles at 70 or 75 once you get rolling. In New England, throw the mileage goals out the window, as there is much more traffic, lower speed limits and perhaps some of the worst drivers in America (excepting Florida, of course). That's where good defensive driving skills are the greatest asset you can have.

12. A Prevost bus is the King of the Road on the interstate system. It is designed and constructed for pleasurable comfort over long distances; a long trip is using the bus for the purpose for which it is intended. You will get to know your bus and its operations and quirks on a long trip. Remember that most over the road bus drivers, the ones who get paid, make about $10/per hour. As a Private Coach driver, you are paying much for for the privilege of driving your own bus than the other guys, so enjoy it.

13. Finally, keep in mind that the Prevost bus is for the most part, a redundant and sturdy critter. With full air up and the mill cranking away far behind you, the miles will melt away and at some point you will say to yourself, "Hey, this is really fun."

Ain't that the point?

[MangoMike]

The Powers that be:

This thread is a great collection of info for the first big trip. How about posting it on the front page under articles so it's easily accessible for future Prevo Dudes - plus it will save everyone the time of re-writing.

Mangodowntheroad